Monkey See

10:14 am

Fri June 15, 2012

Pop Culture Happy Hour: A Week In Theater And A Day To Appreciate Dads

It's been a big week for theater, what with the Tony Awards being handed out and our own Trey Graham in New York to cover them. Trey is still in New York, but we got him on the line to talk about the awards and what he was planning to see during his big theater week. Did he save any atoms from Hugh Jackman to transfer to my arm next time we meet? How is nonprofit theater changing the shape of the New York theater scene? We'll talk about this and more, and to get more of what we thought about the ceremony itself, check out our live-blog of the Tony Awards. In the meantime, enjoy this cornucopia of clips from the show that will help you get the most out of the discussion.

In other news, if you haven't realized it's Father's Day this weekend — not just Stephen Day, as we clarify — and that's something you'd like to address, we are here to remind you. We talk about pop-culture dads (Willy Loman! Dan Conner! Cliff Huxtable!) and songs about dads. This turns into a general discussion of how culture expects both too much and too little from fathers and reflects that in the dads we see in pop culture. I remember this clip from what it turns out is indeed the pilot of The Cosby Show and how it's recalled in the Warren Littlefield book Top Of The Rock.

Glen talks about this story, The Dead Father, and how it influenced him through a fictional father and a real one, and we wind up covering the general matter of limitations in fiction and how they make your work better.

Naturally, that brings us to what's making us happy this week. Trey likes this blog, which we caution you he describes as "bawdy."

Glen likes this song, which takes us right back to Father's Day.

Stephen likes this amazing project undertaken by one of our wonderful listeners, and so can you. And like he does every year, he wants you to listen to this song about Father's Day, which is just about the best there is. Send it to your dads!

I am being made happy by ABC Family's Bunheads, the promise of a week of documentaries, and — of course, naturally — this.